TOMMY STEVENSON: Peaceful warrior

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Published: Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, April 18, 2008 at 7:06 p.m.

Joe Mallisham was a true community leader

There was a time when if you wanted to know what was going on politically or otherwise in Tuscaloosa's black community, you'd drive over to the corner of 32nd Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) and 20th Street in West End.

That's where Joe Mallisham owned and operated his Gulf service station, which for more than

30 years was, as his sister Emma Williams said last week, "a hub" for the community.

Mallisham, who died last week at the age of 79, will go down in history as one of Tuscaloosa's most important early civil rights leaders, the first black county commissioner since Reconstruction and a positive force for his people.

Williams said last week that she and her brother were raised on the Bible - from which their father, L.S. Mallisham, preached every Sunday - Shakespeare and history books, which were read to them at home since they were very young.

But Mallisham, who was always soft spoken and conciliatory, came by his civil rights activism early, after he returned from Army duty in the Korean War and elsewhere.

At a symposium on the Stillman College campus three years ago, he recalled the rude reception he received when he returned to Tuscaloosa from the war.

He said he got off the bus at the station on University Boulevard. Even though he was still in uniform, he was informed by a policeman, "Remember, you are a nigger here and you are going to act like a nigger."

Mallisham had seen the way blacks were treated with respect in other parts of the world. The harsh reception fired him up.

So did what he heard while eavesdropping on a Ku Klux Klan rally where a guy hiding behind a white sheet was quoting from the Bible to justify racism.

"That almost made me anti-

religious," Mallisham laughed, adding that he kept his faith when he realized the perversion of the scripture employed by the KKK member.

Mallisham began organizing almost immediately upon settling back in Tuscaloosa. Along with others like the Rev. T.Y. Rogers, sent to Tuscaloosa to pastor the First African Baptist Church by a young Montgomery minister named Martin Luther King Jr., he founded the Tuscaloosa Citizens Action Committee, perhaps Tuscaloosa's first civil rights organization.

The TCAC later became the local branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also founded by King. Mallisham headed the local branch.

Other than the attempts to integrate the University of Alabama, which culminated in Gov. George C. Wallace's choreographed "Stand in the School House Door" in 1963, Tuscaloosa doesn't show up in many of the histories of the civil rights movement.

But there were plenty of marches, boycotts and skirmishes in the 1950s and well into the next decade.

The most notorious was the law enforcement attack on a TCAC meeting in the sanctuary of Rogers' church on June 9, 1964, remembered in local civil rights lore as "Black Tuesday."

Tear gas was shot through the stained glass windows. As people, coughing and choking, streamed out they were clubbed and arrested.

Both Mallisham and Charles Steele, who now is the national president of the SCLC, were in church that day. Steele recounted last week how Mallisham helped calm the community and remind people of their non-violent mission.

"Joe was always looking to avoid violence, while at the same time pushing for the rights that were being denied us then," Steele said from his Atlanta headquarters. "There could have been a riot that night, but there wasn't, and I think Joe had a lot to do with that."

By the 1970s most of the national landmark civil rights laws were on the books - and to be truthful, attitudes toward races relations had changed for the better in Tuscaloosa. However, true enfranchisement remained elusive on the local level.

Residents here continued to elect officials by "at large" voting. The whole city elected the three-member city commission and the entire county voted for all four members of the county commission.

Mallisham, Steele and lawyers like John England, who is now a Tuscaloosa County circuit judge, began to threaten lawsuits to change to voting within districts, improving the chances for electing blacks.

But no litigation was necessary - again a tribute to the reconciliation efforts of Mallisham and others.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, then a member of the state Senate, got legislation passed to change the city government to a seven-member City Council, paving the way for the election of Steele and England. Following redistricting to provide several "minority-majority" House and Senate districts, former state Rep. Bryant Melton became the first black elected to the Alabama Legislature since Reconstruction.

Melton, in turn, passed legislation setting up county commission districts. In 1984 Mallisham, who had been told not to get too "uppity" when he returned from Korea, became the first black member elected to the commission since Reconstruction.

He served three four-year terms as the commissioner from District 4 and worked tirelessly to see that his previously neglected part of the county got its fair share. After he left office they renamed the Black Warrior Parkway the Joe Mallisham Parkway in his honor.

To be "so feisty," as his sister called him, Mallisham was reticent in conversation, speaking in a soft voice and choosing his words carefully.

"He wasn't a verbose individual or a loud individual," Probate Judge and County Commission Chairman Hardy McCollum told Tuscaloosa News Staff Writer Mark Hughes Cobb last week. "His persona was more about getting the job done, and making things happen, and for the right reasons."

McCollum said Mallisham would often share pieces of his homespun wisdom with him.

"Man, you can't argue you with a fool," was one of those, McCollum said. "What that says is keep your wits about you and don't lose control in dealing with folks that are uninformed, a lot of times."

McCollum, who became especially close to Mallisham in their dozen years together on the commission, also spoke for many Tuscaloosans of all races last week when he said upon the news of his death, "Unashamedly, I'll say I loved the man."

<p class="bold allcaps">Joe Mallisham was a true community leader</p>
<p>There was a time when if you wanted to know what was going on politically or otherwise in Tuscaloosa's black community, you'd drive over to the corner of 32nd Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) and 20th Street in West End.</p><p>That's where Joe Mallisham owned and operated his Gulf service station, which for more than</p><p>30 years was, as his sister Emma Williams said last week, "a hub" for the community.</p><p>Mallisham, who died last week at the age of 79, will go down in history as one of Tuscaloosa's most important early civil rights leaders, the first black county commissioner since Reconstruction and a positive force for his people.</p><p>Williams said last week that she and her brother were raised on the Bible - from which their father, L.S. Mallisham, preached every Sunday - Shakespeare and history books, which were read to them at home since they were very young.</p><p>But Mallisham, who was always soft spoken and conciliatory, came by his civil rights activism early, after he returned from Army duty in the Korean War and elsewhere.</p><p>At a symposium on the Stillman College campus three years ago, he recalled the rude reception he received when he returned to Tuscaloosa from the war.</p><p>He said he got off the bus at the station on University Boulevard. Even though he was still in uniform, he was informed by a policeman, "Remember, you are a nigger here and you are going to act like a nigger."</p><p>Mallisham had seen the way blacks were treated with respect in other parts of the world. The harsh reception fired him up.</p><p>So did what he heard while eavesdropping on a Ku Klux Klan rally where a guy hiding behind a white sheet was quoting from the Bible to justify racism.</p><p>"That almost made me anti-</p><p>religious," Mallisham laughed, adding that he kept his faith when he realized the perversion of the scripture employed by the KKK member.</p><p>Mallisham began organizing almost immediately upon settling back in Tuscaloosa. Along with others like the Rev. T.Y. Rogers, sent to Tuscaloosa to pastor the First African Baptist Church by a young Montgomery minister named Martin Luther King Jr., he founded the Tuscaloosa Citizens Action Committee, perhaps Tuscaloosa's first civil rights organization.</p><p>The TCAC later became the local branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also founded by King. Mallisham headed the local branch.</p><p>Other than the attempts to integrate the University of Alabama, which culminated in Gov. George C. Wallace's choreographed "Stand in the School House Door" in 1963, Tuscaloosa doesn't show up in many of the histories of the civil rights movement.</p><p>But there were plenty of marches, boycotts and skirmishes in the 1950s and well into the next decade.</p><p>The most notorious was the law enforcement attack on a TCAC meeting in the sanctuary of Rogers' church on June 9, 1964, remembered in local civil rights lore as "Black Tuesday."</p><p>Tear gas was shot through the stained glass windows. As people, coughing and choking, streamed out they were clubbed and arrested.</p><p>Both Mallisham and Charles Steele, who now is the national president of the SCLC, were in church that day. Steele recounted last week how Mallisham helped calm the community and remind people of their non-violent mission.</p><p>"Joe was always looking to avoid violence, while at the same time pushing for the rights that were being denied us then," Steele said from his Atlanta headquarters. "There could have been a riot that night, but there wasn't, and I think Joe had a lot to do with that."</p><p>By the 1970s most of the national landmark civil rights laws were on the books - and to be truthful, attitudes toward races relations had changed for the better in Tuscaloosa. However, true enfranchisement remained elusive on the local level.</p><p>Residents here continued to elect officials by "at large" voting. The whole city elected the three-member city commission and the entire county voted for all four members of the county commission.</p><p>Mallisham, Steele and lawyers like John England, who is now a Tuscaloosa County circuit judge, began to threaten lawsuits to change to voting within districts, improving the chances for electing blacks.</p><p>But no litigation was necessary - again a tribute to the reconciliation efforts of Mallisham and others.</p><p>U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, then a member of the state Senate, got legislation passed to change the city government to a seven-member City Council, paving the way for the election of Steele and England. Following redistricting to provide several "minority-majority" House and Senate districts, former state Rep. Bryant Melton became the first black elected to the Alabama Legislature since Reconstruction.</p><p>Melton, in turn, passed legislation setting up county commission districts. In 1984 Mallisham, who had been told not to get too "uppity" when he returned from Korea, became the first black member elected to the commission since Reconstruction.</p><p>He served three four-year terms as the commissioner from District 4 and worked tirelessly to see that his previously neglected part of the county got its fair share. After he left office they renamed the Black Warrior Parkway the Joe Mallisham Parkway in his honor.</p><p>To be "so feisty," as his sister called him, Mallisham was reticent in conversation, speaking in a soft voice and choosing his words carefully.</p><p>"He wasn't a verbose individual or a loud individual," Probate Judge and County Commission Chairman Hardy McCollum told Tuscaloosa News Staff Writer Mark Hughes Cobb last week. "His persona was more about getting the job done, and making things happen, and for the right reasons."</p><p>McCollum said Mallisham would often share pieces of his homespun wisdom with him.</p><p>"Man, you can't argue you with a fool," was one of those, McCollum said. "What that says is keep your wits about you and don't lose control in dealing with folks that are uninformed, a lot of times."</p><p>McCollum, who became especially close to Mallisham in their dozen years together on the commission, also spoke for many Tuscaloosans of all races last week when he said upon the news of his death, "Unashamedly, I'll say I loved the man."</p><p>Reach Tommy Stevenson at tommy.stevenson@tuscaloosanews.com.</p>